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Anderson Ishiekwene jailed for attempting to meet child for sex after online grooming
An international student has been jailed for three years after being caught by online paedophile hunters while trying to meet a girl he believed was 14 for sex.
Anderson Ishiekwene, 25, a Nigerian national, was arrested in Washington eight days after starting a sexual conversation with a decoy profile. Newcastle Crown Court heard he exchanged more than 300 pages of messages with the account run by a paedophile hunter group, repeatedly asking the “girl” to delete his messages.
Ishiekwene admitted attempting to engage in sexual communications with a child and was found guilty of attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming.
He arrived in the UK from Nigeria on a student visa in August 2025 and settled in Sunderland. On 2 January he messaged the Facebook profile of a supposed 14-year-old girl. The conversation moved to WhatsApp.
Prosecutor Cole Cockburn told the court Ishiekwene was repeatedly informed the girl was 14. Over subsequent days he asked about her school and uniform, posed intimate questions about her body, requested pictures and sent an image of his naked groin. When she refused to send photos he called it “unfair” and claimed it was “a normal thing for people to do in a relationship.”
They arranged to meet at the Galleries in Washington on 10 January. Ishiekwene said he wanted to kiss and sexually touch her like “lovers.” On arrival he was confronted by members of the hunter group and arrested by police.
He denied the meeting was for sexual purposes but was convicted after a three-day trial. Judge Robert Spragg said the planned activity on 10 January was a “precursor” to full sex on a later occasion. The probation service concluded there was “little doubt” Ishiekwene was “attracted to children.”
Upon release he is likely to face automatic deportation. Ishiekwene was also ordered to sign the sex offenders register and comply with an indefinite sexual harm prevention order.